Last night I went home, found that my parents who along with my brother, Danny, and sister, Meghan, are graciously watching our dogs Joey and Kylie, had cleaned our entire house and done all the laundry! I started another load from the clothing I had been accumulating at the hospital, ate some leftovers from dinner the other night (the dinner where Danny admitted he had a family member who wasn't potty trained), packed some clothes for Christine and I, lit some candles and took a bath. I called Finnegan's nurse who told me that his 2 hr accucheck showed he was down to 103 so they stopped the insulin. Normally, they said, preemies typically stay on the insulin for days... not our Finnegan! While I was pretty anxious all night, hearing that made me calmer and I slept well from 2:30am till 6:00am.
This morning's rounds were good. Today he will have blood drawn for his first set of TPN labs. TPN is IV nutrition for babies, see http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/007239.htm. The doctors didn't hear a murmur today, so that's a good sign, but doesn't necessarily mean it won't come back or that he won't have PDA. They're still keeping an eye on it. His bili levels continue to drop after being taken off of the wallabe blanket yesterday. Tomorrow if the levels check out, they'll turn off the small bili light over his bed. His phos was a little low, but all his other numbers were within range. The doctor said not to worry. Last night his blood sugar got a little high. Anything above 150 and they'll put a baby on insulin. They've seen levels as high as the 380's and Finn's level was 207 yesterday night.
The doctor also told us that once his second umbilical line gets taken out, we will have an opportunity to hold him. This may happen as early as next week! We may get to Kangaroo with him, which means he will be placed on our chests for some bonding time (It's called Kangaroo time because it's just like what a mommy kangaroo does with her little joey).
Christine-
Today we got to see Finnegan open his eyes for the first time in his life. During his respiratory therapy, all the masks came off, and Finn looked up at daddy and me and squinted his little eyes. We couldn't quite tell what color his eyes were, but he took my breath away.
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| Finnegan with his eyes open! |
I'm still not sure how I feel about the prospect of going home. I think I am more than healthy enough to go home. Everyone keeps telling me I look amazing. I think it's kind of hard to not have a huge smile on your face when you have a gorgeous son beating all the odds two floors below you, but then again I might be a bit biased. The doctors are still a bit concerned with my low hemoglobin levels and the amount of bruising around my incision, so I'm supposed to continue with iron supplements for at least a month after I leave the hospital. Plus, I have an ice pack permanently stuck down my pants to help the swelling and bruising. It's quite the fashion trend.
I'll spare you all the fun information about pumping breast milk for Finnegan. It's so funny when the lactation specialists come in and try to hug me when they see I've produced more milk than the last time. It's definitely something I have to get used to, but I feel absolutely wonderful being able to provide for Finn this way. It just feels right. Anything I can do to help him
Here is a video and a few pictures of Finnegan
Finnegan's cry:
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| Christine pooped out at 6:30 :) |
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